Free Lucky

For one aging elephant stuck in a Texas zoo, life is lonely and harsh. That she's still there is a crime

There is a case of animal cruelty going on at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas. Lucky, a 48-year-old female Asian elephant, has been kept in solitary confinement in an inadequate exhibit that is damaging her health. She has signs of foot disease, a clear indication that an environment is pretty rotten.

Female elephants are extremely social, but since the untimely death of her companion Alport from "undetermined causes," Lucky has been alone. And she feels grief, one of several behaviors -- including compassion, learning, memory, mothering, play, tool use, self-awareness and possibly even language -- exhibited by elephants that put their level of intelligence right beside primates and cetaceans (whales and dolphins).

In a letter, In Defense of Animals (IDA) president Elliot M. Katz, DVM, urged San Antonio Zoo executive director J. Stephen McCusker "to make the ethical, moral, and financially responsible decision to close the San Antonio Zoo’s elephant exhibit and send Lucky to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, which stands ready to transport and house her for the rest of her life."

That was in November of 2007. Lucky is still stuck at the San Antonio Zoo, which made IDA's Top Ten Worst Zoos list.

She may be named Lucky, but thanks to Mr. McCusker, this poor old elephant is anything but.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign the Voice for Animals petition to free Lucky from the San Antonio Zoo and send her to the Elephant Sanctuary
• Send a personal message to the San Antonio Zoo
  

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image: Lucky the Elephant, In Defense of Animals